German president visits Israel to mark 60 years of diplomatic ties
Steinmeier was welcomed at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport with military honours by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who visited Germany on Monday to mark the diplomatic milestone.
Diplomatic ties were formally established on May 12, 1965, following an agreement between Germany's then-chancellor Ludwig Erhard and Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol.
The move came after a gradual rapprochement between two nations whose relationship had been deeply scarred by the atrocities carried out during the Holocaust, during which Nazi Germany murdered some 6 million Jews.
In the following decades, Germany and Israel have built a close network of political, economic, military, scientific and cultural cooperation.
But the anniversary was overshadowed by the ongoing Gaza war, with Steinmeier appealing to Herzog in Berlin to lift the blockade preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the civilian population in the coastal area and adhere to international law.
"Israel's enemies do not abide by the rules, but we must," said Steinmeier in his speech at a state banquet in the German capital on Monday evening. At the same time, he noted Israel's right to self-defence.
In Jerusalem, the two heads of states visited the National Library of Israel, with Steinmeier set to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the afternoon.
Human rights group Amnesty International had previously called on the German president to refrain from meeting Netanyahu, who is being sought under an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
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